Joel McHale kickstarted his career with a 12-year-long run of The Soup, a talk show that satirized (read: roasted to smithereens) everything in pop culture that week; it aired on E! from 2004-15. He followed that with an even more popular starring role on Community alongside Donald Glover. McHale recently announced his upcoming Netflix talk show The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale, and with it have come a slew of revelations from the comedian. Last week we all pretended to be shocked to learn Kris Jenner would call E! to complain about McHale’s jokes at the Kardashians' expense. Today, following an appearance on Big Boy’s radio show, McHale dished on his experience working with Glover and having a front row seat to his stellar career progression since Community.
When asked how he feels about seeing Donald Glover’s glow-up since post-Community, McHale joked that “it’s depressing.” At another point, McHale said, again sarcastically, “I just wish his career was going better.”
“When I first met him and you first start seeing him performing, you realize how special he was and continues to be,” McHale said. “When we started doing dialogue, I was like, ‘He’s Rumpelstiltskin,’" he said, speaking about Glover's ability to create comedy in lines in which comedy wasn't even there.
“You would see him on his laptop in between takes with his headphones on, you could see him doing the beats and working out lyrics, and you’d be like, ‘What’s that fun little side project you’re working on?’” McHale said. “I will say that nothing he’s done is unexpected by any of the cast members. We assume he will be president of the world at some point."
“Between writing Atlanta and starring in Atlanta and obviously Childish Gambino—you saw his performance at the Grammys—and then, I don’t know, I hear he’s a part of a small independent movie franchise… something to do with outer space… but every time we see each other, he’s still Donald, he’s still the nicest guy you’ve ever met,” McHale said, before going for the jugular and getting real, adding that “he’s ugly, super, super ugly.”
“Almost any woman I run into is like, ‘Oh hey you’re on that show!’” McHale said of Community. “And they’re like, 'What’s Donald like? Is his skin actually as smooth as olive oil?’”
McHale also used the interview to bestow praise upon his new network, Netflix—“they’re incredibly positive and supportive”—and promising a weekly talk show that’s just like The Soup, except without any network restrictions from the higher ups, which sounds very promising. The first episode premiered last week.
